The Sleepover Disaster – Hover (Devil In The Woods Records)

Fresno shoegaze trio The Sleepover Disaster have been going at it since the beginning of this decade, putting out increasingly tight and dynamic songs with each successive release. Their upwards trajectory continues on their latest full-length, Hover; their first release for indie stalwart Devil In The Woods. Punchy songs like opener “Friend”, “Tremble” and “Edward Said” display an early-Ride type of attack, with a full-on assault of buzz-saw guitars and pounding rhythms. That’s all good and well, but the band also has, in Luke Giffen, a vocalist with a real singing voice and actual melodic range, which raises Hover beyond a standard shoegaze rehash. There’s also several mid-tempo songs like “Dark Star”, “Make You Sing” and the eight-minute closer “Songwriting For Dummies” which don’t have the same immediately addictive rush as the faster material, but are still strong thanks to the band’s highly developed instrumental interplay and sense of melody. In fact, I imagine that even if The Sleepover Disaster were stripped of all their effect pedals and studio tricks, they could still probably make an album worth listening to. Not that I’d want them to….